Barack Obama will cut taxes for over 95% of American families.
(even though more than half of American think he'll raise their taxes)

just fyi.

arrrgh. darned layout is too skinny for the comic.

go read today's xkcd

antivirus software? on voting machines?

you're doing it horribly wrong.

uh, yeah.

i seem to be being quiet this summer. sorry about that. work continues to go well. my mom is getting near to done with the difficult parts of chemo. i'm going to become a cyborg in september. i'm writing long essays about various parts of my life for later consumption, and i am trying to figure out what furniture i need to buy and how much i can afford to spend on it and when i should buy it so as to inconvenience everyone involved the least.

see the excitement?

welcome back, habeas corpus.

jon carroll talks about the supreme court decision, Boumediene vs. Bush.

Boumediene wants a hearing. He and some other prisoners sued the government, and the case went to the Supreme Court. The case was decided in June. To quote Dworkin: "The Court held by a 5-4 vote that aliens detained as enemy combatants in Guantanamo have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in American courts. The decision frees none of them, some of whom have been held without trial for six years, but it makes it possible for them to argue to a federal district court judge that the administration has no factual or legal ground for imprisoning them. If that judge is persuaded, he must order their release."

aw, yeah.

i'm not saying we should release him; i don't know enough of the details to have an opinion on that yet. i *am* saying we should try him.

my new paint in my bedroom

my new paint in my bedroom
Originally uploaded by kalmn

a few weeks back (late june?) my friend katie came over and we painted several walls in my bedroom red. we left the long walls khaki. here is what the corner of my room looks like now. i am really loving the colors together, and it's so much less tedious than having the entire bedroom be khaki.

being whistled at or catcalled at or having random strange men ask for your phone number on the street is not actually flattering. it's threatening.

i'd say you should ask mildred beaubrun, of orlando florida, about that, but you can't. she's dead.

shot dead by men who wanted her phone number and then got angry and killed her when she didn't react in the way they wanted her to.

street harassment is about keeping women in their place. it hardly ever escalates to this extent, but then, it hardly ever needs to, to keep women willing to do what men want them to, out of fear they'll be killed.

why? why is the rum gone?

er, actually i mean why is livejournal down. i blame little tiny nibbly hamsters having eaten through the cords.

i am at my mom's house for a few days (my house is being ably occupied by my housemate) because while she's doing relatively well with the chemo, it still makes us all feel better to have someone here while my dad is in croatia. (does *your* job send you to croatia? mine neither.)

so, i am about to try sleeping in a twin bed with two small but not that small wiggly dogs. pirate is already asleep against my hip, and josie is on the floor somewhere, but she'll jump back up here, i expect. fortunately i am already well trained in how to not crush the chihuahua while sleeping. whew. or else there'd be some smooshing going on soon.